Tag Archives: Floda 31

Well, there goes the final pillar of trust – the media, along with politicians, police and banks, really are corrupt (as if we didn’t have a slight inkling in the back of our minds already) Apparently, even the Queen was overheard at a party spouting forth about how the Banks need to buck up their ideas too. Seemingly, this western world re-think is approaching quicker than anticipated, I mean GAWD, people are even trying to make #ResignCameron trend on twitter. Imagine if that worked; I can see the tabloid headlines now ‘Twitter Takes Down Toff”, except by then there probably won’t be any newspapers. So, as the universe as we know it falls apart at the seams what are other people up to?

Well.

For a while now I’ve been waiting for a reason to shout as loud as humanly possible about this place. And now my time has come. Reality is, with frequency of posting on this blog, it could well have the impact of a fart in the wind, but know, dear readers, that I’m shouting, really loud at my computer as you read. Like the late, great Michael Jackson said, it’s time to make a change. And some people are.

Now I feel a little awkward. I’ve hyped you up far too much with that intro. So i’ll start with what you can get in return for reading this post and following its links. So, in order of greatness, for reading this post, following the link through and donating as little as $1, you can recieve:

– A thank you

– A postcard from Sweden

– Some coasters made from trees

– A lamp

– A birdbox

– A tree with a bird box in it

– Some moose antlers

– Some screenprints

– A holiday

– Your own sustainable mini house (or Friggebodar as they are known in Sweden)

Pretty awesome, right? well it’s a pretty awesome project. Floda 31 is a design innovation laboratory, situated in one of the last remaining wilderness’ of the world – northern Sweden. I haven’t made it out there yet, but have encouraged plenty of my friends to go and help, with varying levels of success (one got a little big for his boots in their back garden/ snowboardpark and wound up being airlifted out) Other than that, they’ve all returned with a look of serene calm, and confidence in their creative abilities.

Anyway, so it’s been there for a little over one year now and is headed up by Rich and Marije – two incredibly inspiring people who sold up their shares in a very successful design agency to pursue this project. They’re latest ‘mini project’ Friggebodar, is in collaboration with students from the Bartlett school of architecture, and looks at the development of a completely sustainable mini house that is suitable for temperatures ranging from -30 to +30 degress centigrade.

It’s brilliance is twofold, the funding for this project comes through one of the new bastions of collaborative consumption, Indie Go Go – which means that everyone, from all around the world can contribute as little or as much as they want, circumventing the need for an investor or funding. Once complete, the design plans will be open source and freely available to anyone who wants (or needs) to use them. So, if you’re one of the people affected by the squatting laws that are being rushed through whilst we scream and shout about phone hacking – you may just have a solution here.

It seems particularly apt to be writing about this for Fearless, as the two key components to this project are what Fearless and COMMON’s mission statements seem to be about – change for good, the old model being broken and supporting the people out there who are trying to fix it. Go forth and make it happen!!